Game apparatus.



ne. 709,007. Patented sept. te, |902.

w. GIBB. GAME APPARATUS.

(Application led Doc. 21, 1901."

(No Motlel.)

26e/w63 @Se I UNITED STATES PATENT Ormes..

WILLIAM GIBB, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

GAlVlE APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 709,007', dated September 16, 1902. Application iiled December 2l, 1901. Serial No. 86,739. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Beit known that I, WILLIAM GIBB, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts,

have invented an Improvement in Game Ap paratus, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object the production of a novel game apparatus that in its general features resembles the outdoor game of golf.

My novel game apparatus includes as its most essential element a playing-held having putting-holes laid out to indicate a playingcourse which is so laid out as to be an endless course. The course is composed, as herein shown, of a plurality of like courses differentlyarranged on the ield, the plurality of courses merging into and forming a single continuous course. The apparatus to add interest to the game may have suitable bunkers and hazards, and theiield will be surrounded by a cushioned fender. The game will be played on the novel field by means of balls or other movable devices which may be struck by usual cues.

Referringto the drawings, Figure l is a plan View of the game apparatus. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the field and with one of the plurality of single courses laid out thereon. Fig. Sis a partial section in the line Je, Fig.v l. Fig. 4 is apartial section in the line m', and Fig. 5 is a partial section in the line x2.

The field A, which may be of wood or any other usual or suitable material, is provided at its surface with a series of six holes arranged in parallel rows both in the direction of the width and length of the field. (See Fig. 2.) These holes constitute in the game putting-holes. Nine of these puttingholes, ignoring a putting-hole nearest the corner bunker, are in one of the plurality of like courses which united make the endless course referred to. Fig. 2 shows one of these partial courses laid out, and it will be seen that a ball starting, for instance, at the hole designated ct will follow the direction of the line a to the putting-hole designated land thence to the putting-holes marked 2, 3, et, 5, 6, 7, 8, and l). This same course is represented in Fig. l. The second similar partial course (see Fig. l) may start at the hole b and follow the line bl to the hole la and thence to the holes 228m., terminating at the hole marked c. The third of these courses may start at the hole c, follow the path c' to the hole l", and thence along to the holes 2b, dac., terminating in the hole d, and the fourth of these courses which I have herein chosen as the most desirable number will start (see Fig. l) at the hole d, follow the path d. to the hole l, and thence along to the holes 2C, dac., bapk to the hole d. Each of the four partial courses so described and indicated as including the holes marked l to S and laq to 8 and lb to 8b and lC to Sc are united in one continuous course, and said partial courses maybe followed consecutively one after the other entirely about the iield, or an)7 single course may be traversed., or two or more of them, as the players may elect. The field is surrounded by a suitable guard or wall e, having an india-rubber or other suitable elastic buer c', from which the balls or movable devices will rebound. At each corner of the field I have shown, as I prefer to add difiiculties to the game, bunkers f, which are pockets having at their entrance suitable inclinesf, and it will be noticed that the holes 0;, b, c, and dare located fnear the upper edge of the incline, and when these holes are the ones `that must be entered `by, the ball or movable deviceto be knocked out of the hazard by the player the difficulties of the game will be greatly increased. The balls are quite liable to enter a bunker, and it is quite dificult to get them out ofthe bunker into the proper putting-hole. I prefer for greater vsimplicity to outline the courses between the various holes described by a line of some sort connecting the holes, and it will be obvious that this line may be more or less distinct, and, in fact, it might lbe omitted altogether, and the course followed by the numbers indicating the puttingholes, or, if preferred, I may choose a color and distinguish all of the holes l to 8 with one A color, the holes lL to 81L with another color, the

holes from lh to S of another color, and the holes lc to 8C ofyetanother color, so that color will indicate the courseafter starting from the first hole a, b, c, ord, as it will be understood that each player will start from a different one of the holes d b c d. In the center ofthe field I have erected a hazard, shown as a pin g', having a rubber cushion g.

I may produce the field, as I have stated, from a board or other suitable material, and the board, of whatever material, may be sustained upon a suitable bed, as 7L, that may be supported in any usual manner, as by legs h', forming part of any usual or suitable shaped table, and the wall e may be partially sustained by the bed or table, the only essential feature being thattlie buffer e shall project over the field.

The endless course referred to produces, by means of its crossings and bendings, a characteristic figure which for convenience of4 identification may be described as a closedpanel7 pattern constructed on a quad rangular net containing twenty live quadrilaterals, which preferably are squares, having as its fundamental basis the diagonal of two adjoining quadrilaterals of the said net, the said figure belonging to the class calle( rotary, being multisymmetrical after the manner of a fylfot and disclosing one or more swastikas or thelike radiating from and rotating around a central reclining quadrilateral ligure, which preferably is a square, the said reclining figure being also produced by means of the crossings of the said endless course.

It is evident that the quadrangular net on which the endless course is constructed may be Varied within limits which are governed by the aforesaid diagonal and by the use or purpose of the endless course. While, however, preferring the square foundation as giving t-he more perfect course, I do not wish to limit myself strictly in this particular so long as such variation does not materially vary the use or purpose of said course nor change its fundamental basis, which is, as before stated, the diagonal of two adjoining quadrilaterals of the aforesaid net.

The balls or movable devices employed by each player may and preferably will be of different colors, and when color is used to designate the partial courses making up the complete endless course the balls will correspond with the colors of the putting-holes of the partial courses or it might be with the colors indicated by lines on the field.

The game is capable of various modifications; but I will describe one desirable Way of playing the same. Each player having selected the proper ball or movable device will place the same at the proper starting-point, which may be in or near a, b, c, or d and preferably by a cue of usual construction will cause the ball or movable device to follow the partial course for the player controlling that ball or movable device, and a player having reached the end of the first partial course, as from a to b, will thereafter, provided the game is to traverse all of thc courses, start his ball or movable device along the course indicated by either the line b or the holes i 2a, the., and on his arrival at the hole c will continue along the next partial course or path c', and finally he will arrive at the par.- ticular point that he started from-viz., let it be supposed, the point a. My apparatus thus provides a nine-hole game andeighteen-hole game, a twenty-seven-hole game, and a thirty-siX-hole game for the choice of its players. The players, if four, will start, as stated, from the points a b c d, preferably next the corner-bunkers, and they will play alternately, each following his own route, until his own route merges into the route of another, the object of the game being to traverse the course agreed upon in the fewest number of strokes. The corner bunkers increase the difficulties of the game, as a ball in motion may readily roll into one of them from the playing-field, and it will require considerable skill to drive it therefrom by the cue into the proper putting-hole on the line of route. The central hazard is also a source of considerable difiiculty to an unskilled player, as his ball, if it strikes its cushion, will rebound onto the field or be deflected from its course. Each player must follow and goiuto the putting-holes of his own course in succession, and he may, if he desires, cause his ball to attack any ball of another player to put it out of position, and a player may cause his'own ball to strike his adversarys ball or movable device and drive it into a bunker.

- Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

l. A game apparatus comprising a field having thirty-six putting-holes distributed thereover in six rows, six holes in each row connected by an endless course suitably indicated thereon requiring the ball or movable device to pass diagonally from any one of said holes to the right or to the left to another hole in said course, passing between two holes in one of the rows of holes made across or lengthwise of the field.

2. A game apparatus comprisingaplayingfield having thirty-six putting-holes distributed thereover in six rows, six holes in each row, said holes being suitably indicated to designate four courses, all connected as an endless course, the successive holes in eac-. course following diagonally to the right or left to a hole in another parallel row of putting-holes.

3. A game apparatus havinga playing-ield provided with thirty-six putting-holes and united to produce an endless course connecting all of said putting-holes in the manner set forth, said endless course consisting of four similar paths united substantially as indicated.

4c. Agame apparatus having aplaying-ield provided with putting-holes distributed therel on and composed of separate paths arranged in an endless course, the separate paths being IOO IIO

designated in suitable manner that they may be distinguished from the .remaining paths making up the endless course. In testimony whereof I have signed my 5. Agameapparatnshavinga playing-field name to this specification in the presence of i making up the endless course, and bunkers ro 5 provided with putting-holes distributed therel two subscribing witnesses.

communicating with the playing-field.

on and Composed of separate paths arranged WILLIAM GIBB. in an endless cou rse, the separate paths being designated in suitable manner that they may be distinguished from the remaining paths Witnesses:

Guo. W. GREGORY, MARGARET A. DUNN. 

